Medication and non-medication treatments of post-traumatic stress disorder

Recent developments in the psychological and pharmacological management of post-traumatic stress disorder are reviewed, This review of controlled outcome studies indicates that: (i) cognitive behavior therapy is the psychological treatment of choice; (ii) different components of cognitive behavior therapy can be effective; (iii) eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is not as effective as cognitive behavior therapy; (iv) selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors are the pharmacological treatment of choice; and (v) there is increasing support for nefazadone but not for cyproheptadine in reducing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, The need for increased treatment effectiveness and the integration of recent findings into clinical practice is discussed. Curr Opin Psychiatry 14:119-123. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.